Index: pom.xml
===================================================================
--- pom.xml	(revision 507433)
+++ pom.xml	(working copy)
@@ -227,6 +227,13 @@
       <artifactId>commons-jxpath</artifactId>
       <version>1.2</version>
     </dependency>
+	
+    <dependency>
+      <groupId>ant</groupId>
+      <artifactId>ant</artifactId>
+      <version>1.6.5</version>
+	  <optional>true</optional>
+    </dependency>	
 
     <dependency>
       <groupId>xerces</groupId>
Index: src/java/org/apache/commons/configuration/EnvironmentConfiguration.java
===================================================================
--- src/java/org/apache/commons/configuration/EnvironmentConfiguration.java	(revision 0)
+++ src/java/org/apache/commons/configuration/EnvironmentConfiguration.java	(revision 0)
@@ -0,0 +1,129 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+ * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+ * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+ * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+ * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+ * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.commons.configuration;
+ 
+import java.util.Enumeration;
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.Vector;
+
+import org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration;
+import org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Execute;
+
+/**
+ * A Configuration implementation that reads the platform specific environment
+ * variables. On pre java5 JRE it uses Ant Execute task to read the environment.
+ * (in this case ant must be present in classpath). On java >= 5 JRE it uses
+ * {@link java.lang.System#getenv()} and ant is not required.
+ * 
+ * @author <a href="mailto:nicolas.deloof@gmail.com">Nicolas De Loof</a>
+ * @see org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.Execute#getProcEnvironment()
+ */
+public class EnvironmentConfiguration
+    extends AbstractConfiguration
+{
+    private Map environment;
+
+    public static void main( String[] args )
+    {
+        System.out.print( new EnvironmentConfiguration().getProperty( "MAVEN_HOME" ) );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Constructor.
+     */
+    public EnvironmentConfiguration()
+    {
+        super();
+        String javaVersion = System.getProperty( "java.version", "." );
+        if ( javaVersion.startsWith( "1.3" ) || javaVersion.startsWith( "1.4" ) )
+        {
+            this.environment = new HashMap();
+            Vector osEnv = Execute.getProcEnvironment();
+            for ( Enumeration e = osEnv.elements(); e.hasMoreElements(); )
+            {
+                String entry = (String) e.nextElement();
+                int pos = entry.indexOf( '=' );
+                if ( pos == -1 )
+                {
+                    getLogger().warn( "Ignoring: " + entry );
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    environment.put( entry.substring( 0, pos ), entry.substring( pos + 1 ) );
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        else
+        {
+            this.environment = System.getenv();
+        }
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     * 
+     * @see org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration#addPropertyDirect(java.lang.String,
+     * java.lang.Object)
+     */
+    protected void addPropertyDirect( String key, Object value )
+    {
+        throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     * 
+     * @see org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration#containsKey(java.lang.String)
+     */
+    public boolean containsKey( String key )
+    {
+        return environment.containsKey( key );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     * 
+     * @see org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration#getKeys()
+     */
+    public Iterator getKeys()
+    {
+        return environment.keySet().iterator();
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     * 
+     * @see org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration#getProperty(java.lang.String)
+     */
+    public Object getProperty( String key )
+    {
+        return environment.get( key );
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * {@inheritDoc}
+     * 
+     * @see org.apache.commons.configuration.AbstractConfiguration#isEmpty()
+     */
+    public boolean isEmpty()
+    {
+        return environment.isEmpty();
+    }
+
+}